by Justine Hutchinson
It’s May! The height of spring and nature’s way of saying ‘Let’s party!’
For those of you with a bluebell wood at hand, do go for a wander. There’s nothing like it. Ditto for those lucky enough to have a wonderful ‘wisteria walk’ nearby.
Of course, all the new life bursting forth everywhere means there’s a mountain of work to get on with in the garden. Here are just a few things to tackle:
Seed Sowing and Growing
If you live in a warmer area, now’s the time to start direct sowing veg like squash and climbing beans (wait til a little later in the month if you’re still frosty where you are). For each supporting bean cane, I like to sow three seeds in a triangle: one for me, one for the slugs – sigh – and one for insurance.
Indoor sown veg may be potted on from seed trays when large enough to handle, while bigger plants can be hardened off outdoors ready for transplanting into the veg patch in a week or two. As a rule of thumb, seedlings are suitable for potting on when around 2 – 3 inches in height with at least two true leaves. Larger plants are set for hardening off when they’ve developed a robust root system and have several sets of leaves.
Some tougher annuals may be sown outdoors now – zinnias and nasturtiums, for example – and it’s also a good idea to repeat sow under cover another round of tender varieties like antirrhinum/snapdragons. In this manner, you can prolong your flowering season in much the same way as you would by successionally sowing veg such as salad leaves and radishes. Which reminds me, continue on with your successional veg sowing!
Bulbs & Tubers
Late spring – before your perennials really get into their stride – is a fab time to take stock of any patches in your garden where spring bulbs could be planted for next year’s display. Take a couple of pics and make a note in your calender to place your order for additional bulbs towards summer’s end ready for autumn planting. Also look for areas of overcrowding where bulb haven’t flowered as well as usual or are hijacking their surroundings. Narcissi, for instance, should be lifted every four or five years after they’ve done flowering. Simply dig down to one side of a congested clump – avoiding slicing off any green foliage – carefully lever out a section, then split that into smaller groups of 3 or 4 healthy bulbs. Replant those elsewhere at least 18cm deep in soil improved with compost.
Additionally, you can start planting out your gladioli corms now for mid-summer flowering. Try successional planting these, and experiment with placing them in amongst lower-growing dahlias: their spires look terrific paired with early dahlia blooms!
Speaking of dahlias, in warmer areas hardened off plants may be popped out in the garden – with LOTS of slug control – in early to mid-May. Dormant or barely-sprouted tubers can be planted directly in their growing positions.
Pruning
Mid- to end-May is Chelsea Chop time! So called because it coincides with the famous flower show, the Chelsea Chop is carried out on many herbaceous perennials to control legginess (I’m looking at you, sedums!) and overall size, and to prolong the flowering period.
There are a couple of ways to perform the Chop:
- Cut back an entire plant by one third. This will reduce later straggliness and the need for staking, but will delay flowering. So to make the most of this method, perhaps prune one out of every two or three of the same plant, thus having an earlier flowering plant and a later. This works well for nepetas, for example.
- With one larger clump – say, a mature garden phlox – you could experiment with cutting back by one half all the front stems, leaving the back half to flower first, and the front to grow and take over later in the summer
Do note, though, that not all perennials are suitable for the Chelsea Chop. It’s a ‘no’ for woody subshrubs, spires such as delphiniums, and once-and-done-blooming plants like peonies. Suitable candidates include: achillea, anthemis, aster/symphyotrichum, campanula, echinacea, hylotelephium/upright sedum, leucanthemum, nepeta, penstemon, phlox paniculata, rudbeckia and solidago.
Over and above the Chop, this is a fab time to prune to shape or reduce in size any spring flowering shrubs which have gone over. Lightly trim and tidy spent early flowering clematis now, too. (Typically, Groups I and II clems are not hard pruned in the way later varieties are, but occasionally, if a plant has outgrown its position or is looking overly leggy, it might be worth giving it a harder trim at this point in the year.)
Finally, spring-flowering perennials which have had their first flush – aubretia, for instance – may be cut back to new growth for a further burst of blooms.
Other Jobs
Continue keeping an eye out for black spot on your roses – and those pesky aphids everywhere. Spray or treat organically wherever possible.
Invest in some sturdy plant supports and place alongside your young dahlias and delphiniums, ready for tying-in later in the season.
Keep on top of that weeding. Especially important to get a handle on are weeds like bitter cress and cleavers/sticky weed. These flower and set seed early in the season, making life more difficult for the rest of the summer.
Discard spent spring bedding in containers, refresh the compost and plant up with new season bedding.
And lastly, a money-saving project… Who doesn’t love one of those? If you have it growing with abandon in the garden, chop up finely several hanks of comfrey foliage and place, without stems, in a bucket. Press the leaves down with a brick and just cover with water. Place a lid on the bucket and leave for three weeks, then dilute one part of comfrey mix with 10 parts of water. And hey presto, you have a smelly (apologies) but incredibly nutritious and cost effective plant food. Keep the liquid airtight – largely on account of its pungency! – and use on your vegetables, tomatoes, sweet peas and dahlias every couple of weeks during the growing season.
Have fun in the garden, Everyone!
